The US Supreme Court has turned down a bid by President Barack Obama to rehear his plan to protect millions of undocumented immigrants in the US from deportation. The court was unable to reach a ruling on this, with a 4-4 split in the justices, in June.
During a brief order yesterday, the administration’s request, which was always known to be a long shot, was rejected by the court. This means that the decision made on 23 June is final. The decision leaves in place one made by a lower court to block the executive action announced by Obama in November 2014, but never put into operation.
The Supreme Court is still short on justice following Antonin Scalia’s death, in February. The President’s executive action was to allow around four million undocumented immigrants to be placed into a deferred action program. The conditions for this were that the immigrants should have lived in the US since at least 2010, have children who are lawful, permanent residents or have US citizenship, and must have no criminal convictions. The program would supply immigrants with work permits and protect them from the threat of deportation.
On July 18, the Justice Department made a filing in which they asked the Supreme Court to rehear the case after the appointment of a replacement for Scalia. The Senate, backed by the Republican Party, has refused to accept the President’s nominee for a replacement. It insists that the new appointment should be made by the next President.